This is one of the best records crafted by the production team of the Mizell Brothers for Blue Note, who also did notable albums for Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard, Johnny Hammond (for Salvation Records, a Motown subsidiary), and Gary Bartz, among others. It was the first of three albums they made with Bobbi Humphrey, and although I’m not completely sure whether or not this was her biggest seller, it certainly put her on the map. The soaring, epic funk of tunes like Harlem River Drive sound deceptively effortless. There’s actually a lot going on there. Bobbi does some singing on this album too in a girlish but charming voice. The Mizells crafted their own genre in a way, pushing jazz-funk and soul-jazz into a kind of cinematic disco-jazz, as if all your favorite 2-3 minute instrumentals from Blaxploitation soundtracks were given new, deeper treatments and allowed to stretch out into full-fledged compositions. Actually this a mediocre analogy for this record, because those constant qualities of blaxploitation film music – the tension of danger or menace – are nowhere to be found here. There’s still a sense of something exciting going on, but it’s a lot more Summer Breeze than Superfly, I guess. Pretty much all joyful exuberance here – this is another post I meant to do during the summer, but it’s about to be summer soon enough in the southern hemisphere so maybe I’m early rather than late. The ensembles found on the Mizell Bros albums were always filled with heavyweights and this one does not disappoint, with stalwart Harvey Mason on the drum kit and the regal King Erisson on congas pinning down the lush soundscapes to solid earth. Fans of the Arp synthesizer (and who isn’t a fan of the Arp?) won’t be disappointed either as it’s put to great use. Also don’t be put off by the scrappy condition of the album cover – I lucked out and found an almost Near Mint copy of this in a “previously well-loved” jacket. Hope you enjoy it.

Not much to say here: this is the third and final volume where CTI documented the days when people could get together for a giant open-air festival without fear of being gunned down like livestock. More vibes from Milt Jackson playing it safe. But Esther Phillips is the headliner, at least on the record, and we get wonderful tracks from her including a somewhat playful God Bless The Child which inexplicably has a few bars of Latin jazz that sound suspiciously like Wes Montgomery’s take on “TEQUILA” as a bridge to an instrumental stretch-out that stays in double time for a while before going back to the normal tempo.

It was a fun run of contractual-obligation records and but I felt more contractually obligated to finish sharing them than I felt enthusiastic about it. But that’s just moody old me.

The second volume of the contractual-obligation-trilogy, CTI Summer Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl, delivers the same kind of deal as the first, which you can read about in last week’s post. I don’t have a tremendous amount to say about it. “Blues Force” gives an opportunity for Milt Jackson to do his thing on the vibraphone. In the last post I had said this volume would contain a version of the theme from The Thomas Crown Affair, “Windmills Of Your Mind” – well, I lied. I got my Michel Legrand confused with my Francis Lai. They both have similar, wistful melodies, so that’s my excuse. Opening up the second side of the LP, it becomes a medley with some Renaissance jazz in “Pavane” and winds up with an almost-stirring “Fire and Rain.” Freddie Hubbard again leads the group on the album’s closer with “People Make The World Go Round.” Not to discourage anyone’s enthusiasm but I reiterate what I said in the first post – these live records are pleasant enough but I would mostly rather here a studio release from any of the many titans on this stage, they are just more compelling. The third volume should be up this weekend, which features two tracks (not one, as misspoken last week) featuring the great Esther Phillips on vocals, who gets credited on the first two LPs because it cost too much to customize the album credits on these.

Anybody who reads this blog and has some money to spare – please donate it to the relief efforts in Puerto Rico, that colonial property of the US who a certain asinine toddler just mocked instead of mobilizing support for humanitarian aid. I’m not in the habit of endorsing specific charitable organizations, most have their pros and cons and it’s your choice. Stay sane out there!

Record Company – Creed Taylor, Inc.
Published By – Jobete Music Co., Inc.
Published By – Char-Liz Music, Inc.
Published By – Wingate Music Corp.
Published By – Hubtones Music
Mixed At – Electric Lady Studios
Recorded At – Hollywood Bowl

I had intended to post this for the American Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer in the country that doesn’t recognize May Day as the real labor holiday. This and the other two volumes were nearly ready to go when I received crappy professional news that I took personally. At this point, not posting on the blog when I get bad news is the equivalent of “my dog ate my homework”. When some good news finally comes in I’ll probably have to shut the blog down completely, it will be such a disruption from the pattern of the last three years.

Of course immediately after that holiday weekend, I was propelled into full-on disaster preparedness mode for the impending apocalypse, as discussed in my last post, which failed to actually occur. It did happen in the Caribbean, and now Mexico and Puerto Rico are being smitten by the hammer of the gods. I also hear that THE RAPTURE is imminent, so there may still be a chance to see the end of the world before the month is out. Meanwhile, why not groove to the proto-smooth-jazz of the CTI All-Stars while waiting for the four horseman of the Book of Revelations to crash through your bedroom wall like the map thieves in Time Bandits? Obviously I’m not really “feelin'” this post right now but I had it prepared for you and, in the northern hemisphere, it is the official last day of summer so I might as well post part 1 of 3 of a summer jazz festival.

Calling the CTI All-Stars “proto-smooth-jazz” is slightly cruel but still not altogether wrong. The MC who opens the show (either Leonard Feather or Rick Holmes, I can’t tell), opines, “If jazz is dead, this is the biggest funeral I’ve ever seen.” Somehow this doesn’t inspire confidence in me at all. After all, jazz has always had a lot of friends and relations, and I’d expect a big turnout at its interment. Nevertheless, this concert was recorded in 1972 and so it is legitimately pretty funky and soulful jazz. A listener might hope – what with this being live on stage, and not a tightly controlled Creed Taylor studio production – that the musicians would let loose more, take more risks, really let it rip. Instead this is still largely a polished diamond, all the rough edges shaved down to gleaming facets, and if that’s how you like your jazz then you will revel in this. Although I’m tempted to think of the presence of Creed Taylor anywhere in the vicinity to be a bit like the unseen policeman in the tower in Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, compelling all the musicians to stay on their best behavior and discipline themselves, the truth is probably less cryptic. This is an “All-Star” band comprised of around a dozen people who were all good bandleaders in their own right. You get the feeling that everybody is being respectful and not wanting to step on anybody else’s toes by grandstanding too much.

I’m not sure what the story is in the five-year lag between the recording of this concert and its release on album. The fact that it was done in three separate installments, and at the very end of CTI’s partnership with Motown Records, makes me inclined to think this was a contractual obligation thing. I suppose three budget-priced LPs might sell a little easier than a deluxe triple disc set, but then again anybody still closely following CTI in the late 70s, when the label had pretty thoroughly run out of steam, probably would have bought it no matter how it was packaged. As it stands, these three volumes seemed to get relegated to the cut-out bins pretty quickly and are pretty easy to find on the cheap. All of mine were ‘new old stock’ so they made for a nice and easy vinyl transfer.

I’ve already described the music in general terms. I could get specific but then I would have to complain about the silly police siren in the Marvin Gaye sandwich of Inner City Blues/What’s Going On. Oh my, I guess I just did. Listen to the incomparable Jack DeJohnette on his drum kit chaffing at the bit on this piece, trying to inject a little improvisational excitement into the careful, reverential arrangement, and you might see why I’m being kind of dour. I still dig it, but it’s not a “you gotta hear this!” kind of cut like a roster of this much talent merits. Still, this concert is an opportunity to hear some of the people whose careers took off in the 70’s while they were still young and hungry – Grover Washington, Jr, and George Benson often don’t get their due credit, and that’s largely the fault of their own sleepy and predictable releases as time went on and they truly became the poster children of pre-Kenny G ‘pop jazz’. Others, like Joe Farrell, had a bunch of consistently interesting records for CTI that I really do think are unfairly overlooked.

Benson takes the lead in a version of ‘California Dreaming’ that is more exciting than it probably deserves to be. The closer on this set, Freddie Hubbard’s “First Light” is the most compelling thing here. Which isn’t too surprising – Hubbard turned in some of my favorite CTI releases, which I think rank among the best LPs of his career, in particular Red Clay and Straight Life. It’s solid and makes you want to hear the next LP of this set, but ultimately the version on his own album is still better.

All three of these records are gatefolds, featuring the same photograph of a (mostly but not entirely filled) Hollywood Bowl from behind the musicians. The graphic designers and typesetters changed the track list, but the musician credits are generic – it is up to you the listener to discern who is taking a solo at any given time, or whether that’s Bob James or Deodato on the electric piano on this or that cut. Hell, singer Esther Phillips is credited on all three LPs but only actually appears on the last one. If any readers happen to have a break-down of who actually plays on which tracks of this sprawling triple live project, leave a comment and if the info is reliable I will add it to the body of this post. Meanwhile, stay tuned for the next volume which features a moody rendition of Windmills Of Your Mind that is worth a listen.

Shall We Gather at the River:African-American Sacred Music from the Florida Folklife Collection
Florida Folklife Program – S1576 (2011)

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Just in time for Notting Hill carnival. I’ve only been in London at the same time as that famous celebration once. I caught some of the steel band showcase with a good friend on the Friday before the real festivities get underway, and then it proceeded to rain all weekend, and I found myself doing other things. I keep hearing it’s not the same as it used to be, but I hope to make it back someday anyway. There’s a lot of history in that celebration. In the meantime, I made this mix for our mutual edification. I do hope you enjoy it in good health.